Happy Birthday To Me

 

ICONIC WATCHES UK – STAINLESS STEEL DAYTONA 

Call +448453008075 or Email enquires@iconicwatches.co.uk 

I am so excited to share my 30th birthday present with you. I am still in shock that I now own a Rolex. I put so much time and research into the prefect watch and the prefect seller so of course I wanted to share this big purchase with you and share all the information I gathered; how and where to buy a luxury watch. If you would prefer to just get straight to the part of how I got such a great deal and the details of the seller; scroll to the bottom.

Six months ago I started toying with the idea of getting a luxury watch for my birthday, I wanted something to keep forever. I do have my Chanel J12 which I love but it’s very sporty and I wanted something to represent my 30th birthday that I could wear everyday.

My dream watch is a Rolex Daytona in rose gold but at £25k this was not going to happen. I wanted a gold watch because I wear a lot of gold but the price usually starts from £20k and it did look slightly odd against my weddings rings. Let’s also remind ourselves that I am not a celebrity and I do not walk around with a body guard therefore wearing a £20k gold watch would feel a bit worrying. The next option was a steel Daytona which comes with a black or white face. These retail at £7950 but they are impossible to source because there is a dramatic price jump from the steel to the white gold and they look very similar from a far. If you are not a watch geek (like me) you most likely would not tell the difference between the steel and the white gold.

I had to scrap this idea because I wanted a new watch and I was not prepared to pay a premium, specially if the watch was second hand.

I then started to look at Cartier watches, I love the Ballon Bleu. If it is good enough for Kate Middleton it is good enough for me. I tried on the all steel large size at first but then fell in love the steel and yellow good, this was perfect to wear with any hardware. I also preferred the medium size because it was more classic and less sporty. I still couldn’t help think of the Rolex because I am a tom boy at heart and prefer the chunky watches. Basically I am not very chic and elegant!

After dragging all my friends to every watch shop in Knightsbridge all my friends encouraged me to buy the Cartier over the Rolex. I do understand my friends when they say Rolex can portray a certain stigma of being too flashy but for me I love the masculine watches and I love the work of a Rolex. Rolex watches can be worn swimming or in the shower, where as watch brands like Cartier are more like jewels to me and you have to be more considerate. With that said I would love a Cartier Ballon Bleu next for when I feel and act more girly and chic…. not sure if that will ever happen.

I probably visited every Rolex in Chelsea over one hundred times in the last few months trying on every single style. I loved the steel Datejust with diamonds and a rhodium face and I also loved the bi-colours. I loved the 41mm but felt it was too big but the 36mm felt too small. I still had no idea what to chose and at this point no one had even agreed to buy me one.

Paris finally agreed to buy me one for my birthday. This was a huge deal to me because usually I buy everything myself, I felt very lucky. We spent a couple of weeks researching stockist internationally; stores and online websites. We found three websites that offered 20% off. I emailed all three and wanted to choose the one that replied being the most helpful.

Iconic Watches replied straight away answering all my questions and I had a lot of them. It was vital all my questions were answered as we were spending so much money and it was a special gift, the watch needed to be right, actually it needed to be perfect and the seller had to be trust worthy.

I was in no doubt the most annoying customer Iconic Watches had ever spoken to because I hassled a poor guy called Chris for two weeks sending him photos of watches asking him to source a particular style that changed daily. I was now certain I wanted to shop with Iconic Watches because the service was great, they have nearly 1000 watches in stock (new and used) and they can source any watch and still offer a lower price than any other retailer I found else where. Chris listened to everything I said and suggested to go for the Steel Daytona, he knew I wasn’t head over heels for any other styles and encouraged me to buy the one I really wanted. It was slightly over my budget but the steel Daytona’s are extremely rare to find and not only was this price lower than any other Steel Daytona I had found it was also new. The Chelsea Styling shopper in me wanted the rarest watch that was the hardest to source. The size of a Daytona is also in between the two Datejust sizes, which is what I was looking for. After two weeks I decided to go ahead with the steel Daytona. I loved the black face but only chose the white because I did not want two black watches.

I can not recommend Iconic Watches enough. I would not even consider buying a watch else. The service was immaculate, the choice was endless, the price is highly competitive and it beats going to the airport where they may not have a lot of choice on the day or you feel rushed. My watch arrived at 10am the next day! It could not have been any more convenient.

Iconic Watches took my wrist measurements and removed some links but it was still too big. I took it straight to Rolex in Knightsbridge and they removed some extra links. When I showed them the watch, all the employees gathered around me and they all said “wow this is an amazing watch and really rare where did you find it.” I was now even more excited about my new purchase.  I did not ask if they watch was a counterfeit because I knew it was genuine and researched Iconic Watches enough to trust them. However without even asking the Rolex sales assistant said “you have a great watch here that will always keep it’s value and just in case you are curious it’s definitely genuine.”

If you look at all the watch prices on line here you will see that the Iconic Watches price is listed (approximately 20% cheaper) and below is the retail pice. The steel Daytona is the only watch that has a higher than retail price, this is because it is a rare watch. I was happy with this price because I have seen the same watch a few years old and still selling for more. Iconic Watches sell Steel new Daytona’s for £8250 and used for £7850 therefore the margin for the company is still extremely small considering this is a hard watch to source. Click here to shop for a Rolex Daytona.

My next post will feature the watch in one of my outfit articles so you can see how it looks on and how I wore it.

If like me you are wondering where Iconic Watches source their watches from and why they are able to offer competitive pricers, please read the following information:

                                               

Iconic Watches (the internet brand) and highstreet shop Ancient & Modern Jewellers Limited have a long history. We have been selling watches and Jewellery since 1943 when the Coles family first opened the shop in Blackburn. We have always had the same high street location and have just completed a very lengthy refurbishment so are going to be here for a long time to come!

In brief

• We are a 9-5 Monday to Saturday High Street Shop as well as an online shop

• All watches that we sell are 100% genuine and all new watches come from Authorised Dealers

• We have been recognised as being the number one luxury watch retailer in terms of customer feedback by TrustPilot; an online review site where reviews are left by genuine customers.

• We can source any current new luxury watch and many discontinued ones

• All in-stock watches come with a 7 day Satisfaction Guarantee

• We are a registered member of the National Association of Goldsmiths

• We have 4 in-house watch experts so there is always someone on hand to assist with any questions.

• We ship watches with FedEx and they are fully insured until they reach your delivery address.

• We can typically offer 20% off most luxury watches

We sell unworn and pre-owned watches and at any point in time we have around £1 million pounds worth of stock spread over 200 watches. The majority of our stock watches are kept at a secure offsite location but with a prior phone call we can have any of these watches available for viewing. We try and stock the very popular, fast moving watches and because of this we achieve a high stock turnover. This is one of the ways we can succeed with low margins and offer the significant discounts that we do.

Where do our watches come from?

Our business has become one of the largest watch brokers in the UK and around 70% of our business is ordering watches specifically for our clients from our Authorised Dealer network. Working this way we are able to supply almost any current watch and many discounted luxury watches. We currently list around 8,000 watches on our site but we can source many more.

Why should you trust us with your money?

We think it is really important that whenever you buy anything of significant value you do your research first, that includes researching us and our competitors. We can give you the facts but we encourage clients to Google us and to ask your friends about us for additional peace of mind. We work really hard to offer amazing customer service, big discounts and a wide range of watches. Having done this for a large number of years we have earned an enviable reputation.

• We are a UK High Street shop and have been in the same location for over 70 years – you know where to find us.

• We have excellent genuine customer reviews on trustpilot.co.uk and freeindex.co.uk. Please take the time to read what our previous clients have said about buying watches from us.

• We are an accredited member of the National Association of Goldsmiths (this is an independent body which monitors UK jewellery stores) if they were recieving many complaints about us we would have our membership revoked.

• We have a Barclays merchant account (how we take payment) and if we had been taking payment and not delivering the correct items then our merchant account would have been closed down.

• We are featured on the HSBC and UBS staff intranet sites as recommended retailers.

The golden rule of buying online

If you ever want to be 100% safe buying online you should buy with a credit card as it offers inherent protection from your card provider. We do charge extra for credit card transactions however we also offer the option of refunding that charge once you have the watch and are happy with it.

Our Address

17 New Market Street, Blackburn, BB17DR, Please contact us to arrange an appointment to view or discuss any watches.